Not Alone
by dragonflybeach
Summary: Two lonely people decide not to be alone one night. One of them doesn't realize the other had something more in mind. But Always doesn't always last forever. A three shot with Druna on the side. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

"Thank you for coming, Neville." She said softly, almost so softly he didn't hear her.

He nodded as she absently flicked her wand to cast a silencing charm around the table.

They were back in the same place. The Leaky Cauldron, where the biggest regret of Neville's life had begun seven weeks ago. Where the party to celebrate graduation from Auror Training had been held. Where the three women Neville had loved had all been present with their current spouses or boyfriends: Luna with Draco Malfoy, Hannah with her American businessman who was way too old for her, and Susan with Michael Corner. Where Neville had drunk way too much of the firewhiskey and butterbeer he began to suspect George Weasley of spiking with something that enhanced, shall we say, romantic feelings, as Harry had proposed to Ginny in the middle of the party, Malfoy had taken his wife home early with an unmistakably wicked gleam in his eyes, and Ron and Hermione were practically making out on the bar. Where Seamus had finally made his relationship with Dennis Creevey public by snogging and groping the poor boy in front of everyone. Where a girl with glossy dark hair and smoky eyes and too much red lipstick had asked him to dance, and the whiskey made him say yes. Where he found himself spending the evening with her, even though he had been warned she had graduated from Quidditch groupie to Auror groupie, because he didn't want to be the only one alone tonight. Where after a couple hours of drunken clumsy grinding against her on the dance floor, she had led him into the back room of the bar and given Neville his first blow job. Where half an hour and two more shots later, she had apparated the two of them back to her flat and he had lost his virginity. To Pansy Parkinson. And to make sure he was well and truly deflowered, he had repeated the action. Several times. Then he had awakened hung over and disoriented in a strange bed and had to apparate home to Grimmauld Place, realizing as he hit the front door what Seamus and Michael had been talking about with the "Walk of Shame" as Harry and Ron had cheered his arrival, not knowing where he had spent the night.

She flipped her dark hair over her shoulder and took a deep breath, her lips parting as she prepared to speak.

He wondered for the dozenth time what had made her owl him and ask to meet for tea.

"I'm pregnant." She murmured, and he felt all the air in his lungs whoosh out through his lips as her words hit his chest with the force of a train.

"It's yours, from the night of the graduation party. In spite of my reputation, I don't make it a habit to sleep around. I'm not asking for anything from you, and I understand if you don't want to be involved, but I wanted you to know."

She looked up at him with sad resignation in her eyes.

He took a deep breath, surprised somewhat that his lungs filled normally and nodded. "I know some people. I can arrange a discreet adoption."

Her expression crossed through outrage into pure fury in a heartbeat. "You will not!" she shouted so loudly that he glanced over to make sure the silencing charm had dampened her outburst. "If you don't want anything to do with our child, fine! But it's my baby, and I _will_ keep it!"

"No." he quickly backpedaled. "I was just giving you an option. I know … this isn't really … what either of us planned." He looked at her curiously. "Or at least not what I planned."

Suspicion began to grow in his mind at her lack of response.

"Was it what you planned?" he asked, barely holding on to his anger.

She looked around the room for an alarmingly long time before turning back to him and answering. "Yes and no." she shrugged.

"What did you do to me?" he growled, his temper making its way dangerously close to the surface.

"Look, I'm alone, all right?" she cried. "My older brother was killed by the Order for following Voldemort. My parents were killed by Voldemort for _not_ following him. Daphne and Blaise got married and moved to Greece. Draco is so wound up in his wife and the baby on the way. Greg is positively whipped by his gorgeous Beauxbaton who wouldn't have looked at him twice if it hadn't been an arranged marriage. Do you know what Millie is doing now?" her voice was almost a screech by that point.

He shook his head no.

"She lost all that weight, starting our sixth year at Hogwarts. She goes to healer academy during the day and she's a stripper in a muggle bar at night. She's got more friends than any of us! And I'm alone!"

She broke off with a shaky breath. He discreetly pushed her teacup every so slightly closer to her, and she took a deep drink.

"So I just decided that night, that I wouldn't use the spell. I mean, you're a pureblood, you're a good looking bloke, you were incredibly brave to stand up to Voldemort and his whole army, and you're obviously both smart and tough if you graduated from auror training, right? Those are all good qualities to have in my baby. I figured, if it happened, it was meant to be, and if it didn't, it wasn't. So I didn't do anything to enhance the chances of conception, but I didn't do anything to prevent it either."

He stared at her, his emotions ricocheting between anger, disbelief, betrayal, shame, sorrow, and self-satisfaction that Pansy Parkinson, Slytherin pureblood snob, had deemed him worthy to father her child.

And the startling realization that in her belly grew his only family, other than his grandmother, who had married Aberforth Dumbledore and moved to Hogsmeade to carry on with her own life.

"We have to get married." He said, stunning himself as well as her.

"No." she shook her head. "Save the noble Gryffindor shit. Slytherins don't work that way."

"But the baby … " he gestured vaguely at her.

"Will not suffer for having unmarried parents." She answered with a note of finality.

"It wouldn't be much different for us than all of the other purebloods who have arranged marriages." he shrugged.

"I'm sorry, but even though I loved my parents dearly and miss them more than anything, I'm glad they're not here to force me to marry someone I don't know." She frowned.

"We're not exactly strangers." His face flushed. "We, um, knew each other pretty well that night."

"It's not exactly like we became best friends afterward, though, is it?" she almost snorted. "At least you left a note. That was decent of you."

"Sorry." His blush deepened. "I wasn't really sure what to do the following morning, and I was sure it was going to be awkward."

"It's always awkward." She waved her hand dismissively. "It didn't have to be any more awkward because I was a Slytherin. Just handle it the same way you would have if I had been one of your little Gryffindors."

He wondered if it was possible for his face to get any redder. "I've never had a morning after with a Gryffindor. Or anyone."

"You've never spent the night before?" she mused, one corner of her mouth turning up.

"I had never done that before at all." He whispered to the tabletop.

"You were a virgin?" she asked incredulously.

"Yeah." He replied defensively. "I mean, everyone is at first, right?"

"No, not that." She smirked. "I didn't know. You acted like you knew what you were doing."

"Thanks. I think." He wondered if it was possible to die of mortification.

"So does all this mean you want to be involved?" she pinned him with her stare.

He swallowed reflexively. "I don't know what I want right now." He told her honestly. "But I can't imagine having a kid and not being part of their life."

"It's my baby." She narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm going to carry it for nine months and I'm the one who has to push it out of my vagina ..."

There went his blush again.

"So don't even think for a minute that you're ever going to take my child from me because you're some badass auror."

"No." he shook his head. "I wouldn't separate my child from his mother. Her mother."

"Good." She nodded. "I'm glad we understand one another."

* * *

A/N - ! #$%^&* rabid plot bunnies...


	2. Chapter 2

He told his roommates that night. Even Ron, as obtuse and oblivious as he normally was, caught on to the fact that something was seriously bothering Neville.

"You can tell us anything." Harry assured.

"IkindaknockedupPansyParkinson." he mumbled, too fast and soft for them to understand.

It took three more attempts before they finally understood what he said.

"Oh. _Oh._ Wow." Was Harry's response.

Ron stared opened mouthed for almost a full minute before Harry finally elbowed him.

"Yeah, well, um, mate, it could be worse. You could have knocked up Malfoy." Ron babbled.

"That's not even physically possible." Neville rolled his eyes.

"You know what I mean." Ron argued.

Telling his grandmother and her husband didn't go much better.

"I expect you're going to do right by this girl." Aberforth said gruffly, pouring a glass of whiskey and shoving it in front of Neville.

The expectant father looked around the empty bar. "I offered. She refused to marry me. Said she wants to keep the baby and all, but she doesn't want to get married just because of the baby."

Gran actually laughed. "It's about time a girl who knows her own mind took you in hand."

The unfortunate phrase his grandmother used caused memories of Pansy taking certain parts of him in her hands, and mouth, and caused his face to flush embarrassingly.

His grandmother laughed harder. "That's not what I meant. You are so much like your father. I had wondered if I was going to have to go along on their wedding night and explain exactly what he was supposed to do."

"Please do not tell me this." Neville clapped his hands over his ears.

"Fortunately for you, your mother was rather like your Miss Parkinson." his grandmother winked. "She took it upon herself to educate your father, else you wouldn't have been around."

"Gussie, you're embarrassing the boy." Abe admonished. "He doesn't want to think about his parents doing such things any more than he wants to think about us doing them."

"Oh, I am sooooo leaving." Neville practically ran from the bar, with his Gran's laughter floating behind him.

* * *

"Look, you really don't have to do this." Pansy said for the seventh time as they sat in the waiting room.

"Yes, I do." Neville answered for the seventh time.

"Fine. You're a Gryffindor and you're so damn noble, you should have been some gentleman knight from the Middle Ages. But you don't have to come to my healer appointments." she huffed.

"Yes, I do!" he insisted.

"I'm a big girl." she rolled her eyes. "I can find my way to and from St Mungos without your help."

"Who said I was here for you?" he snorted. "I'm here for my son."

"Really?" she asked softly.

"Other than my Gran, he's the only family I have." Neville sighed.

"You don't have any family either?" she frowned.

He shrugged. "My parents were killed in the attack on St Mungos during the war. My Uncle Algie and Aunt Enid died in the war. I was an only child. My father was an only child. My mother's family was all killed in the first war."

"I'm sorry." she murmured. "I mean, I knew you lived with your Gran, but I never really thought much about your family beyond that."

"I'm sorry too." Neville smiled at her shyly. "I know you don't even have a Gran."

"Yeah, but I have him." Pansy smiled, rubbing her belly.

"And I'm not exactly family, but I won't leave you to go through this alone." Neville promised. "Anything you or our son need, I will be there."

At three am, when Pansy flooed begging him to bring her spinach and sugar quills, Neville wondered if he had been a bit rash in making that promise. But he remembered the first time he heard his son's heartbeat, and he didn't mind at all.

* * *

"Congratulations." The healer smiled. "It's girl."

"A girl?" Pansy and Neville were both stunned. "We were so sure it was a boy." She added.

"No, very much a girl." The healer grinned. "A very healthy little girl with a good, strong heartbeat."

"Well, that changes everything." Neville mused, still a bit bewildered.

"What does it change?" Pansy narrowed her eyes at him.

"I was studying Quidditch and dragon taming to have something to teach my son. I have to study up on little girls. I've never been around any. I don't know anything about them." he shook his head.

"Are you saying that our daughter wouldn't be good enough to play Quidditch?" Pansy raged. "Your little bloody ginger hair friend plays professionally, and she's a girl! And she might quite like dragons!"

"Yes, she could at that. I guess I can still teach her about Quidditch and dragon taming and you can play dolls and tea parties with her." Neville agreed.

"So you think you're too good to play tea party and dress baby dolls with your own daughter?" Pansy snapped.

Neville learned that day that there is no good way to argue with a pregnant woman.

* * *

"Neville, I need you to come over right now." Pansy's head said through the green flames.

Panic flared in him. "Step back. I'll come right through."

"Do you need help or something?" Harry asked with concern.

"I hope not." Neville paused, his foot halfway in the fireplace. "I hope nothing's wrong with the baby. I mean, she's four and half months. The risk of miscarriage should be gone, and it's too early to worry about pre-term labor."

"If you need anything, let me know." Harry told him sincerely.

"Thanks mate."

Neville stepped through the floo.

"Pansy, what's wr ... "

He was interrupted by her arms flinging around his neck and her tongue in his mouth.

"I was watching this old movie, and it was so ... hot ... " she broke just long enough to murmur before attacking his mouth again.

He pulled back as she tugged him toward the bedroom. "What are you doing?"

"Hormones." she muttered, tugging him back against her. "I want you so bad right now."

"Are you sure this is all right?" he spluttered, as she reached down to palm his growing erection. "We won't hurt the baby?"

"The baby is fine but I'll hurt _you_ if you don't take me in there and fuck me senseless right now." her hand moved away and he instinctively leaned toward her until he realized both of her hands were working on his belt.

Pansy had taught him not to argue with a pregnant woman.

* * *

He moved in two weeks later. To help her out, he told Harry and his Gran. To be there in case she needed anything. To get to know his daughter before her birth. So Pansy calling at odd hours didn't wake Harry and Ron.

Because the booty calls were becoming more and more frequent.

They read in a book that it was normal for pregnant women to be more, um, aroused, during the middle months of their pregnancy.

Pansy took it to extremes. Of course, why should that be different than anything else she did?

* * *

"You were seriously a virgin the night she was conceived?" Pansy asked him one night.

Neville, relaxed almost to sleep from his orgasm, made a sound that hopefully came out as an affirmative.

"But you were ... good." she giggled. "I was Theo Nott's first. He was all ... awkward and groping and came in my hand the first time."

"We were both so smashed, I think it clouded our perception of how good I was." he groaned.

"No, you have natural talent." she informed him. "That's rather rare. You and Draco are the only two I'm aware of who are so flawlessly graceful in the romantic arts."

"Oh Merlin." he groaned.

"No, it's a good thing." she informed him. "Draco was my first. The night of the Yule Ball."

"Do we have to talk about this?" he pulled a pillow over his face.

"Yes." she yanked the pillow from his hands and threw it off her side of the bed. "He was so incredibly smooth. He'd been fooling around with older girls for months. He had made a bet with Angelina Johnson right after the school year started. When she lost, she had to sleep with him. He started making bets with some of the other older girls. By about the fourth time that he won and a sixth or seventh year had to sleep with him, I was wondering whether it was him cheating or them intentionally losing."

"So he's a player, then?" Neville growled.

"He was until he got involved with Luna." Pansy replied pleasantly, ignoring the venom in his voice. "We had an understanding, that we weren't required to be faithful to one another. At least, that was the way he wanted it, and because I wanted to be with him, I agreed." she cupped Neville's chin in her hand. "Please don't think badly of me. I was young and dumb. He was my best friend and I thought I wanted something more with him at the time. I thought one day, something would happen that would make him stop chasing other girls. And it did. But I wasn't the girl he wanted."

"Luna." Neville sighed, not really wanting to hear about how the girl he had crushed on for years ended up with her husband.

"Yeah." Pansy drew circles on Neville's chest with one fingernail. "He was so used to intimidating everyone and everyone being frightened of him, especially after he took the mark. One night in sixth year, he and Luna ran into each other. Literally. They ended up in the floor with her cheek against his groin. He told her that if she wanted his dick that bad come to the Room of Requirement at midnight and he would shag her brains out. He was just trying to scare her. He came in the next morning and crawled into bed beside me, totally freaked out. She had actually shown up, and told him 'I don't think you want a shag. I think you just want someone to care.' He had ended up talking to her until almost daylight. He was getting ready to leave, to go get his shower and get ready for class, and she said. 'Draco, you forgot to shag me. Should I come back tonight?'" Pansy giggled again. "He didn't know what to do with her. It was priceless. Draco Malfoy rendered speechless by a girl." Pansy nuzzled further into Neville's shoulder and laid his other hand on their baby. "He needed someone to accept him unconditionally and not judge. And someone to open his eyes to the fact there was a whole world out there beyond Malfoy Manor. She kept coming round, and he kept talking to her. When they took her off the train at Christmas, I suspected it was set up. I had been watching them for the last few weeks before. I had an idea that he wanted out and was looking for a chance to escape with her."

"It looked real," Neville acknowledged. "When the snatchers took her off the train and he left with them. I tried to follow them. I was convinced he was stealing her to offer as a human sacrifice or something."

"Everyone thought that." Pansy gently kissed his neck and gently stroked his chest. "At least until they found the snatchers stunned and obliviated almost within sight of the train."

"I've got news for you." Neville told her. "Even after it came out that Malfoy had cleaned out his Gringotts account and his parents reported him missing, until the day they turned up at the Ministry and everyone saw first hand that Luna was safe and sound and with him of her own free will, the Aurors were still looking for them as a kidnapper and a victim."

"But Draco was good. No one found them for over a year until they finally heard the war was over and came home. Then they got married, and now they're living happily ever after and going to have a baby any minute. I'm glad they made it through. I don't think anyone else could suit Draco the way Luna does."

She rubbed Neville's hand over the bump. "How weird would it be if our daughter did grow up to marry their son?"

"Really weird." Neville agreed, kissing Pansy's hair.

It didn't bother him the way he thought it would to hear about Luna and Draco. It actually gave him more insight into Pansy.

* * *

"Who are we going to name her after?" Pansy asked. "Your mother, my mother, your Gran … "

"Why don't we _not_ name her after someone?" Neville suggested. "So she doesn't have to be compared to someone else, dead or alive? So she doesn't have to feel she's not good enough if she's not like that person?"

"I love that idea." Pansy smiled with tears in her eyes.

Neville brushed her hair back from her face.

"Damn hormones." she muttered.

"The hormones do have some advantages sometime." he grinned.

"Horny bastard." she growled.

"You're the one who wanted me to move in so my dick would be readily available." he reminded her as he headed toward the kitchen.

She hit him square in the middle of the back with her shoe.

* * *

"Vanessa." She said when he came in from work.

"No, Neville." He grinned.

"The baby's name." she rolled her eyes. "Vanessa. It means butterfly in Greek. And the Essa part means 'meant to be' in Latin." She smiled at him hopefully.

He crossed the room and placed both hands on the baby bump. "It's perfect." He told her.

* * *

They never talked about their relationship. Pansy didn't "do that Hufflepuff touchy feely shit."

They appeared at social functions together. Everyone knew they were living together and expecting. They shared a bedroom and a kitchen table and a bathroom. They planned their child's life together. They never talked about getting married. They didn't talk about the future at all, other than how their daughter was not going to date until she graduated from Hogwarts or how she was going to be the most beautiful, intelligent, talented witch of her age.

Neville supported them with his Auror salary. Or at least Pansy let him think he did. She secretly put half of his salary into an account at Gringotts, and paid the difference of their bills from her inheritance. She wouldn't hurt his pride, but by the same token, she didn't feel right allowing him to support her while she didn't work.

* * *

At the six month mark, Pansy announced that they had to chose godparents for Vanessa.

"Why?" Neville asked.

"Because someone has to take care of her if anything happens to us." she explained with exaggerated patience. "The only living relative either of us has is your Gran, who helps run a bar. That would not be my choice of settings to raise my child."

"Okay, so how about Harry and Ginny?" he suggested. "They'll be married shortly after Vanessa is born.

"Seriously?" Pansy's eyebrows shot to her hairline. "How many death threats has he had over the past four years? His wife travels with a Quidditch team. And I hate to break this to you, but The Chosen One isn't the most emotionally stable person I've ever met."

"Okay, so who do you suggest?" he challenged.

"Draco and Luna, of course." she smirked haughtily.

"Seriously?" it was his turn to act stunned. "You honestly think Draco Malfoy is more emotionally stable than Harry Potter? And Luna? Who couldn't keep track of her _shoes_ for five years? You're going to give her care and custody of our _child?"_

"Draco has matured tremendously from the person he was at Hogwarts!" she thundered. "He's stable, with a good home, a good job, and a happy marriage. That's better than we can say for most people we went to school with!"

Neville suddenly burst into laughter.

"What?" she snapped.

"What if we made it Harry and Draco?" Neville choked out between fits of giggles.

Pansy began to giggle as well. "That would be hilarious. I'd love to see the looks on their faces."

"They would hex each other over the proper way to change a nappy." Neville smirked.

"Maybe they would channel the latent homosexual attraction that's been brewing between them for years into familial affection and finally fuck each other." Pansy suggested.

"What?" Neville's eyes widened in horror. "Ew! No!"

"You really are sheltered, Neville." she told him with a wicked grin.

In the end, they chose Draco and Ginny, because they were deemed the most mature of all their combined friends.

Neville fervently wished their services would never be needed.

* * *

Neville came home to find her crying one day, less than four weeks before their daughter's due date.

"Pans, what is it?" he knelt beside the sofa, taking her hand in both of his.

"I went to Diagon Alley today." she sobbed. "I had been running errands for nearly two hours. I was in the apothecary, and some old woman told me that I had on two different coloured shoes. I didn't know because I couldn't see my damn feet!"

He pulled her face into his shoulder before she realized he was desperately trying not to laugh.

"I'm fat and I'm hideous." she wailed.

"You're not hideous." he soothed her. "I've never seen you more beautiful. Your skin glows, and your hair is so thick and shiny right now. And you're not fat. You're growing our baby. You'll have the rest of your life to be hot and sexy, but only nine months to grow her into something fabulous."

"You're my best friend, Nev." she blubbered, kissing his cheek. "You're so good to me."

"You're the one who's good to me." he pressed a kiss to her hair. "You're the one who's bringing my daughter into the world."

She hugged him tightly, praising him and thanking him for putting up with her.

Neville crossed his fingers that her conversations with Luna were mostly Scorpius and Vanessa related these days, and Pansy never realized that Neville had been practicing Draco Malfoy's calm-the-pregnant-woman lines.

* * *

Vanessa Marie Longbottom came into the world on a stormy April evening. The healers quickly realized the baby was in distress during Pansy's labor, so an emergency c-section was performed. The baby was brought out just in time, with the cord wrapped around her neck. Neville went weak kneed with relief when his daughter gave her first cry.

He sat by Pansy's bedside as the new mother slept, studying his daughter, marveling that his and Pansy's drunken fumbling had created something so exquisitely, beautifully, perfect.

"Hey." Pansy's weak voice jarred him from his thoughts.

He helped her sit up in the bed, piling pillows behind her, and then laid their daughter in his arms.

"Thank you." he whispered, kissing Pansy's temple.

"She's amazing, isn't she?" Pansy looked up at him with a fragile smile.

"Beyond amazing." Neville agreed.

"All right, so I didn't actually push her out, but that doesn't change our deal." Pansy announced.

Neville laughed.


	3. Chapter 3

On the day little Vanessa turned three months old, Neville came home suspiciously quiet. He merely nodded to Pansy, peeked over the side of the crib at his sleeping daughter, and headed for the liquor cabinet.

"What's wrong?" Pansy asked, slipping her arms around his waist from behind.

He didn't answer, merely shook his head and tipped up the whiskey bottle for his third shot.

"Tell me, Neville. You're scaring me." she tried to turn him, but he didn't budge.

"Dammit!" she smacked his back with the heel of her hand. "I'm good enough to fuck and live with and have a baby with, but not good enough for you to tell me what is going on?"

He turned then, and she was even more frightened by the despair in his eyes.

"I killed a kid." he whispered.

She smoothed his hair, tugging on his arm, leading him to the sofa.

"What happened?" she sat them both down, wrapping her arms around his chest and her legs around his waist, pulling his head against her shoulder.

"We had a tip about some activity. Former Death Eaters and some come later sympathizers. We raided the compound. Rounded up most of them. But there was one who wouldn't surrender. He kept his wand pointed at us. Wouldn't drop it, no matter how many times we told him to. He started to speak the killing curse, so I took him down before he could hit one of my men. We pulled off his mask, and it was Jason Crabbe. He was sixteen years old!" Neville's voice broke on the last and he began to sob openly in her arms.

"Neville, you didn't know." she held him as close as possible. "You had no idea who was behind that mask. It could have been a seasoned, hard core death eater. You did what you had to do."

"He made me kill him. He wouldn't surrender. He was just a boy!" he choked out.

"Neville, don't do this any more." she said, the tears overflowing her own eyes.

"I'm sorry, Pans, I just won't be any good tonight. Or probably not for a few days." he clung to her.

"No, I don't mean _this,_ I mean, give it up for good." she babbled.

"What?" he raised his head, frowning.

"Resign from the Auror Department." she told him.

"What?" he repeated.

"Nev, you're not happy. You became an auror because that's what everyone expected of you. But that's not who you are. Let it go. Find something that makes you happy." She smoothed his hair and kissed his forehead.

"But I have a family to take care of." he shook his head.

"No one said you had to risk your life or sanity to do that." she told him. "We'll be fine. We have plenty of money in Gringotts. The bills are all paid. You can take a lower paying job."

"Are you sure?" he asked hopefully.

"Absolutely."

* * *

He worked for the Ministry for a while, as a mid level administrator in a stuffy department of bureaucracy. He worked for Malfoy Industries for a year, in botanical research.

Then the letter came from Professor Sprout, telling him that she had decided to retire, and could think of no better possible replacement than Neville.

"This is it." Pansy told him. "This is what you were meant to do."

"But what about you and Vanessa?" he asked.

"We'll be right here." she shrugged. "You can come home whenever you want."

His interview with Headmistress McGonagall was more of a formality than anything. The day after speaking with her, he received her owl officially offering him the position.

His friends threw him a party.

Malfoy pulled him outside.

"You know what made me do it?" the blond asked. "What made me turn away from everything and everyone I've ever known to run away with Luna? She told me one day that there were only two ways dating relationships end. You either break up, or you get married. And if you know you're not going to marry someone, it's cruel to keep things going until someone gets hurt. She thought I was going to break up with her. Honestly, I thought so too. But then I thought about being away from her for the rest of my life. So I married her instead. It was the less scary of the two possibilities." Draco took another sip of his drink.

Neville stared at him for a long moment. "I don't really know how to take this from you."

Malfoy shrugged. "If you have a choice, always take it the best possible way." He clapped Neville on the shoulder and returned to the party.

Neville repeated the conversation to Pansy later. She told him that Draco Malfoy should worry about his own love life and stay out of hers. Which of course made Neville concerned that Draco and Luna were having problems that he didn't know about. Pansy just smirked and pointed out the fact that Luna had stayed away from alcohol all evening.

"She's pregnant again." Pansy pronounced. "But Draco doesn't know yet, because if he did, he would have been plastered to her side the way he was when she was expecting Scorp."

* * *

Her prediction turned out to be correct. Luna was pregnant, with twins in fact.

The Malfoys continued living the picture of domestic bliss, adding a second and third platinum blond, grey eyed son to their family.

Neville and Pansy continued their non-relationship. They didn't even talk about having another child. It was as if both were afraid of bringing up the subject.

He lived at school during the week, coming home on weekends, holidays, and for the summer. He randomly came home here and there during the week, to have dinner with Vanessa and a few moments alone with Pansy after they put their daughter to bed.

Neville was much happier, except for missing Vanessa while he was at school. Pansy seemed to be as well.

So if things were working, don't ruin them, right?

* * *

Little Vanessa was the joy of their lives. She had Pansy's thick dark hair, Neville's sparkling blue eyes, Neville's nose, and Pansy's lips. She learned how to floo call her daddy at school on her own by the time she was two years old.

She chattered non-stop about Scorp and babies and her stuffed kitty and flowers. She loved to drink tea with her mummy and read stories with her daddy and didn't bat an eye about the fact her parents didn't live together all the time like Uncle Draco and Aunt Luna.

Neville loved all of those things about her.

* * *

At the beginning of Neville's second year at Hogwarts, Headmistress McGonagall hired an assistant. Someone to help her with correspondence and routine tasks, so the headmistress could still teach a few classes.

The first one was an older lady named Mavis Rickenbacker. She was a nervous person who had a meltdown over every slight disruption of her routine.

The second one was completely the opposite, a young woman with a docile personality. Her name was Astoria Greengrass. She was sweet and petite and always smiling.

She and Neville became good friends, eating lunch together nearly every day. One day he showed her a picture of Vanessa he had taken the previous weekend, twirling in her favorite pink dress while wearing a glaring orange Chudley Cannons hat her "Uncle Ron" had given her.

"Oh." her eyed widened. "I didn't realize you were married."

"I'm not." Neville shrugged. "Her mother and I ... it's complicated."

Astoria nodded. "She's very beautiful."

He extolled his little princess' virtues, as he did to anyone who would listen.

Astoria didn't smile as much after that. Neville felt a little disappointed, and a little embarrassed.

But it was probably best that Neville hadn't led her on, when he was with Pansy.

* * *

For Halloween that year, Hogwarts held not only a feast for the students, but also a staff party on Saturday night. Pansy came to be Neville's date.

He never considered anything else.

But Pansy quickly narrowed her eyes in on Astoria. The way they younger woman's face lit up when Neville walked in the room. The way it fell when she saw Pansy was on his arm.

Pansy didn't say a word. But Neville knew she had noticed.

He brought the subject up that night when they were alone in his quarters. Vanessa was spending the night with the Malfoys, and Pansy was staying with Neville for the first time at Hogwarts.

"Look, Astoria ... " he trailed off, not sure what to even say.

"What's going on with her?" Pansy asked, folding her arms.

"Nothing." Neville shrugged. "We have lunch together sometimes. Well, more often than not, I guess. She's really sweet. And she's completely brilliant. She keeps the school running. There's such a shortage of qualified teachers, so McGonagall ends up teaching classes more than her headmistress duties. Astoria handles all the administrative things for her, and doesn't stress out and snap at people like the one before her did. The kids all love her." He droned on and on, acclaiming Astoria's praises much the way he did when anyone made the mistake of asking him about Vanessa.

He finished with "But there's nothing going on, Pans. I swear, I wouldn't do that to you. Astoria and I are just friends."

Pansy smiled at him. "I believe you, Nev."

* * *

On the day after Christmas, Pansy sent Vanessa over to the Malfoys, telling Neville they had something important to talk about.

"I've met someone." she said softly, holding his hand but not quite meeting his eyes.

"Who is it?" Neville frowned, not understanding what she was telling him.

"I don't know if you remember Marcus Flint, who played Quidditch at Hogwarts? He was a few years older than us. I ran into him recently, and we've spoken a few times since then. I think he and I could have something, you know, serious. I'd like to find out." she finally looked up at him, holding her breath.

Neville looked hurt. "But what about us, Pans?"

She sighed. "Neville, we don't love each other. Well, we do, but we've never been in love with each other. We've made this relationship work purely out of the fact it was convenient for both of us. We both deserve more. Someone who will love us soul deep, for the person we each are, not the person that someone else needs us to be. Someone to love the way Draco and Luna love each other. I want to see if there's a chance I could have that with Marcus. And I think you deserve the chance to see if Astoria is that person for you. We deserve a soul mate, not just a best friend with benefits."

He looked at her, his eyes filling with tears. "But what about Vanessa?"

"We'll do what we have to for Vanessa. But she's strong. She doesn't need her parents to be together as much as she needs her parents to be happy. You can still floo call her every night and see her as much as you can. It won't be that long before she's going off to Hogwarts and you will have her more than I do anyway." Pansy sniffed back her own tears. "I'll always love you Neville, and you'll always be my best friend. But we were never meant to get married and we both know it."

He pulled her into his arms, and they both cried.

In the end, he gave her his blessing to pursue the relationship with Marcus Flint. She gave hers for him to pursue Astoria Greengrass.

He went out for a bit, to gather his thoughts, he said.

She flooed to Malfoy Manor, to have tea and a good cry with Narcissa Malfoy, the one Slytherin she knew that could understand how much it hurt to do this stupid noble Gryffindor shit.

* * *

Vanessa Marie Longbottom boarded the Hogwarts Express holding hands with her best friend, Scorpius Malfoy. Aunt Luna made sure they had snacks for the train and Uncle Draco gave them money for the trolley lady just in case. Vanessa's mum Pansy hugged her, made sure she had everything three times, and that she knew that her dad and stepmum would meet her at the other end. She didn't take off her sunglasses so no one would see that she was crying. Vanessa's stepdad Krasimir Blogorodna even came, taking time off from the Bulgarian Quidditch team to see her off. Vanessa had worried a bit about leaving her mum at home with her two year old brother, as Kras traveled so much, but her mum had assured her that she had been in the same position when Vanessa was a baby and her dad had first gone to teach at Hogwarts. Besides, Uncle Draco told her, if her mum needed a break, she could always bring Sergei to their house. It wasn't like the Malfoys would even notice another kid. Aunt Luna smacked him for that.

Vanessa didn't know why the adults were making such a fuss. She had been to Hogwarts loads of times. That was where Dad and Astoria lived.

And how many times had she seen on those posters that "Hogwarts Will Always Be There to Welcome You Home"?


End file.
